Ooedo Onsen Monogatari Premium Hotel Sokan
大江戸温泉物語Premium ホテル壮観
Does Ooedo Onsen Monogatari Premium Hotel Sokan allow tattoos? Yes, covered
Hotel Sokan's open-air baths are rock pools with no roof at all, so bathers see the sky by day and stars by night; a tattoo goes in if two of the hotel's paid seals cover it.
Tattoos are allowed in the large baths only if the hotel's own paid cover seals hide them completely. The group's bath rules, linked from the hotel's hot spring page, cap that at two seals; a tattoo two seals can't cover keeps you out of the shared baths. The hotel has no private bath to fall back on.
Show this at the front desk
※入れ墨・タトゥーのある方は大浴場をご利用いただけません。ただし、当館指定のカバーシール（有料）を貼って、入れ墨、タトゥーが完全に覆える場合に限り、大浴場をご利用いただけます
The operator’s own wording, to show at the desk if you need to.
The bath
The hotel draws on Matsushima Onsen, which it says is known as Taiko Tensen, the ancient spring. The operator lists it as a sodium chloride, sulfate and hydrogen carbonate spring, weakly alkaline and hot at the source, for cuts, poor circulation, cold sensitivity and dry skin. It says the water is diluted, heated and recirculated through a filter.
Each side has an indoor bath behind glass, with a hotter and a cooler tub, and an open-air bath of rocks with no roof over it. The hotel says the men's open-air bath faces the morning sun and is dark enough at night for a full sky of stars, and that the water is not very hot, so a long soak is easy. Both sides have a sauna. The corridor to the baths shows the drill and photographs from when the spring was bored. The large baths open 3 p.m. to midnight and 5 to 10 a.m.; the saunas 3 p.m. to midnight and 7 to 10 a.m. Shampoo, conditioner, face wash, razors and lockers with keys are provided. There is no private bath.
The hotel
A large family hotel in the Ooedo Onsen Monogatari group's Premium line. Meals are buffets with a live kitchen grilling Sendai beef tongue and sirloin, and Haagen-Dazs ice cream is all you can eat at dessert. A Premium lounge facing the Japanese garden pours free drinks, alcohol included, throughout the stay, and an outdoor terrace and a lounge with a fireplace sit beside it. Kids' rooms come in Japanese and Western types with bunk beds, and an indoor play park has large climbing equipment.
Good to know
- Free drinks all stay, beer included, in the Premium lounge facing the garden.
- Book the hotel bus by 6 p.m. the day before, since it takes no same-day requests; each ride costs ¥40.
- Baby baths, baby chairs and a crib wait in the changing rooms of the large baths.
Getting there
From Sendai Station, take the JR Senseki line to Matsushima-Kaigan; the hotel publishes no train time for that leg. Its bus takes about 15 minutes from Matsushima-Kaigan Station, and about 5 minutes from Matsushima Station on the JR Tohoku main line. The bus also stops at the Matsushima-Kaigan Rest House. It runs for staying guests only, booked by 6 p.m. the day before, at ¥40 a ride. Drivers leave the Sanriku Expressway at Matsushima-Kaigan IC, about 10 minutes away; parking is free.
Matsushima STN · JR Tohoku main line (or JR Senseki line to Matsushima-Kaigan)
Not walkable.
Hotel bus, booked by 6 p.m. the day before: about 5 minutes from Matsushima Station, 15 from Matsushima-Kaigan Station, ¥40 a ride.
Where it is
- Shinkansen tickets Seats between any two stations, booked by date.
- JR East Pass from ¥35,000 · 5 or 10 consecutive days For the days you leave the city.
- Naruko Gorge and Ginzan Onsen autumn tour The Naruko Gorge in autumn color and Ginzan Onsen’s old inn street, a day from Sendai.
- Japan Rail Pass from ¥53,000 · 7, 14 or 21 days For a trip that takes in several regions by Shinkansen and JR lines.
What happens when you arrive
Cover the tattoo completely before you go in. The hotel doesn't specify a size, so cover everything.
How we know
Confirmed from official site (the notice on the hotel's hot spring page, and the Ooedo group's bath terms it links to for the two-seal limit)
Best for: families with one small tattoo who want a buffet hotel with open-air baths under an open sky
The group's bath terms (ooedoonsen.jp/terms/?section=onsen) refuse tattooed bathers except where two of the hotel's designated seals cover the tattoo completely. The hotel's pages give no seal size and sell the seals at a charge. No private bath and no room with its own hot spring tub on the hotel's pages. The operator says the water is diluted, heated and recirculated. Large baths 3 p.m. to midnight and 5 to 10 a.m.; saunas 3 p.m. to midnight and 7 to 10 a.m. The open-air baths may close in bad weather.
Book your stay
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